Crimson Desert: Charting the Unknown Shipbuilding Guide — Unlocking A Wider World, Building Your First Ship, and Setting Sail

Shipbuilding is not available from the start, and buying the DLC alone does not unlock it. The gate is camp progress. First, complete Chapter 3, Homestead, which sets up the Greymane camp at Howling Hill. Then work through the Greymane faction quests, the Grounds of the Sunrise line, including Expanding the Camp and the camp upgrade tied to Gathered Will. Players who already finished this progression in the base game will find the new quests waiting instead of having to redo them.

Once the camp has expanded far enough, a Charting the Unknown section appears among the faction quests. Its ocean questline is headed by A Wider World, the quest name used in the official 2.04.00 notes. Start its opening quest, A Call from Beyond the Horizon, follow the marker to your comrades at the Greymane camp, and finish the conversation: the Greymanes talk about seeking new horizons in search of coin, and shipbuilding unlocks at the end of it. If the section is not there yet, the camp has not expanded enough; go back to the faction quests rather than hunting for a ship menu that does not exist yet.

With shipbuilding unlocked, open the map and pick a freed port. Guides report the first build at Vellua; the route is the same wherever you start. Open the port, choose Details, then find Shipbuilding under Missions. The same mission also appears in the Dispatch missions tab as a Small Shipbuilding mission. Either way you reach the same screen: the requirements panel on one side, your comrades on the other.

Read the requirements panel before dispatching anything. It lists the materials and the comrades the job needs, and published guides disagree on the exact material list, so this guide does not print one: trust the panel in your own game, not a copied list. Two things are consistent across guides. First, the job needs comrades with the Engineering skill, and comrades busy with other building work cannot be used; if yours are occupied, hire Contribution Workers to fill the gap. Second, the build takes 12 in-game hours once dispatched. Sleep at camp and the ship will be ready when you return.

When the build finishes, you gain Knowledge for the Small Greymane Ship and the quest Where the Wind Blows begins. That quest is the bridge to your first sailing, covered in section

4. Do not go looking for the ship at a random dock first; the quest marker will take you to the right harbor.

If you would rather skip the build, fleetmasters sell ships directly. Ship Manager Hopkins at Vellua, in Grace Estate, is the named seller in guides, and fleetmasters are found throughout Pywel. Buying is instant where building takes time, but it is paid in Camp Funds, and the larger vessels are priced for much later in a campaign. The table below lists the Fleet Office prices reported for version 2.04. These are live-game listings, not a Pearl Abyss price list, and they are in Camp Funds only; never convert them to dollars.

A rowboat is cheap water access; a Small Hernandian is the first proper ship for exploration and early trade. Treat the Medium and Large vessels as late-game purchases: buying a large ship too early can drain millions of Camp Funds that the systems making sea trade profitable still need. Ship parts for customization are sold by fleetmasters in Demeniss and Delesyia, per the official 2.04 notes, so a bought ship is a starting point, not a finished build.

The two routes are not two versions of the same purchase. Dispatch building trades materials and 12 in-game hours for a lower direct Camp Funds cost; buying trades Camp Funds for immediacy. For a first ship, the dispatch route also walks you through Where the Wind Blows, which is why this guide presents it first; for a second or larger vessel, buying is the straightforward path.

Whether your first ship was built or bought, the first sailing runs through the same harbor steps. Follow Where the Wind Blows to the Harbor Notice Board, which is marked on your map, and speak to the comrades waiting there; they will tell you about the bounties available at sea. Then examine the supplies nearby and speak to Ship Manager Hopkins at the docks.

At Hopkins, choose Manage Ship to see the vessels at your disposal, then Crew to add the comrades sailing with you. Crew choice matters for what the ship can do out there, so bring your strongest companions rather than whoever is free. Then walk to the pier where your ship is anchored, board it, and interact with the ship's wheel to set sail. Ships are a mount category of their own, and from here the ocean systems open up: new islands, maritime trading with newly added trade goods, and sea bounties from the notice board.

Do not treat the first ship as the end of the system. Sail the eastern and southern seas, work the notice-board bounties, and trade the new sea goods; that income is what funds the larger vessels in section

3. Keep an eye on crew and parts: a bigger ship without the crew and fittings to use it is a floating expense, not an upgrade. And remember the boundary from the top of this guide: the ocean is the DLC's own waters. If a destination is inland, the ship is not how you get there.

No. Shipbuilding unlocks only after the camp progression in section 1, and you still need a ship from either route. Buying the DLC buys access, not a vessel.

Not for the ocean storyline, which opens after the Howling Hill chapter once the Greymane camp has expanded enough. The three protagonist storylines are a separate schedule and do require the main story to be complete; see the companion DLC overview for that split.

Because published guides disagree on it. The Shipbuilding menu's own requirements panel is the authoritative list for your game; read it before dispatching, and do not trust a copied table.

No. Ships sail the DLC ocean, the eastern and southern seas of Pywel. Inland destinations are reached the way the base game reaches them.

Occupied comrades cannot take the shipbuilding dispatch. Hire Contribution Workers to cover the job, or wait until your Engineering-skilled comrades are free.

Diving uses a breath gauge and its own equipment, and it gets a full guide of its own next; this guide stops at the waterline.